Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Cole's New Mission: Self Destruction

The last time I posted, I just heard back about Riley and his EPM. Since then, Riley has been doing pretty well. He still slips a bit, but I feel like it's getting better. His slips have been mild and mostly on the part of the arena where the sand has spread out to the edge and there's no base. (Note to self during my ride last night: for a quick fix, just don't ride in that spot.) Riley even jumped last Tuesday! He was AWESOME, and felt like my old horse, only better. Unlike before, where he generally had one speed of powerful canter (fast) and our riding was a little laissez faire, I was able to collect him while maintaining the power, resulting in a more calculated and enjoyable ride. On Sunday he was very stable on the lunge line, no slipping, and was happy to help John improve his riding at the canter (I'm so proud of them both for how good they looked!). He finishes up his Oraquin paste this week and switches over to a feed-through powder.

In the meantime, the two boys started going out together last week and were best friends for a few days in the front field. They then got put in the big back field, where I think they're mostly just ok with each other, although not best friends (which I'd imagine has something to do with Cole kicking Riley, and then now Riley always pinning his ears at Cole).


At first the boys were practically sharing the same blade of grass, but of course by the time I took a photo, they stopped looking quite so adorable.

I am slightly convinced that Riley is playing Bad Big Brother. I think he's convinced Cole that it's not that hard to get a day or two off if you just try to kill yourself. Of course the next best thing to Riley getting the retirement he's always wanted (since those plans aren't working out as well as he dreamed) is to make his little brother look bad and get all the glory. Maybe they shouldn't be turned out together after all...

The reason Riley ended up jumping on Tuesday in my lesson, instead of Cole doing dressage, was because Cole was off from a nice slice on the inside of his leg, right above the hock. (How he managed to do that is both impressive and a mystery to me.) The vet said it was just barely not deep enough for stitches, but to keep an eye on it and put him on an antibiotic to prevent infection. So Cole won on Tuesday and Wednesday and got those days off. On Thursday, he was sound and the swelling had come down a bit, but he was very disappointed about working. I guess he figured he had to pull out the big guns when I rode him, by which I mean the big bucks and baby leaps. Then on Friday through Sunday, Cole was tucked up and kept having an elevated respiration rate, making me paranoid about him having heat stress or colic. He won again, with Friday off and easier works on Saturday and Sunday. He was very grumpy during his Saturday trot set and once again let loose the big bucks when I lunged him on Sunday. Because his efforts still weren't working, on Sunday he cut his cannon and his stifle, hoping that would at least be worth two more days off. Thankfully he was sound Sunday and Monday, so I'm hoping that if I just keep making him work, he'll finally figure out that it's not worthwhile to kill yourself just to not have to work.

I'm also hoping that having lame pony torture time will discourage the self destruction.

Cole not only got the swelling above his hock iced, but got a massage from Riley's awesome new back massager. 

Still having to do a 15 minute trot Saturday, only at 6:30 AM to avoid the heat. 

In other horsey news, I just finished up taking care of Sarah's horses for a little over a week. Bailey, Tristan, and Doodle Bug were all very well-behaved and made it very easy to take care of them. I wish I had a picture of Doodle to flaunt on here because he's this absolutely adorable spotted pony. Sarah's farm is usually pretty quiet, but I've never seen as much wildlife there as I did this past week. I spotted a gorgeous fox, there's a bunny that lives by her horse trailer, and then one day I spotted a doe with two fawns. Two days later, I spotted another female and a male with a small rack.

I was amazed by the doe and her two fawns- the photo doesn't do it justice, but the babies still had spots!

Tonight I have a lesson with Cole, which will hopefully go well, assuming that he hasn't injured himself further. I told everyone what a jerk he was being (refer to the huge buck comments above) and had a bit of a crisis over buying him, so of course he was perfect last night. I do still think I'll be consulting Dr. Martha, because his personality doesn't seem in line with being as big of a grumpy jerk as he was Thursday-Sunday. All the same, my fingers are crossed for another perfect ride tonight. 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Half Ass School is Back in Session

It's been awhile since I've had a lesson at the Half Ass School of riding, but this weekend we're picking it back up. Once Riley came back to town it looked like I was finally going to get back to my slow and steady pace of learning all there is to know about riding. I mean come on, I've been Rolex bound for a long time now, but no one ever believes me. In two years I've learned the basics of walking, and halfway learned the basics of trotting. The most cantering I'd done was on Ransom (the star Pony at Heronwood), and he has a big canter. I've trotted over a few cross rails on Ransom, Will and Charlie, even a few on Tig, but that was a failed effort since I'd been off for awhile and I was still very used to Will. It is kind of funny how everyone I rode I just couldn't get used too. My fit was always the best thoroughbred around, Will, or the all-star pony Ransom. There was a little bit of a height difference there, but I didn't care. They both put up with a lot of me not knowing really what I'm doing. Maggie has even dubbed me the Professional of Beginner Breaking a Horse (or pony).

That got a little long winded.

So, Riley came back to town. He was lame, but I was excited because my original mount was back and I hadn't ridden in a long time. We were already talking about getting the Half Ass School going again with plans to get me cantering and jumping so I could get a ribbon on Riles too. I got a pink one on Willard, but I need one on both boys. The Cole joined Team Riley, now Maggie and I both had someone to ride and it could be back to the old days of hacking around the farm, Maggie teaching me a little while she worked with Cole too (or Riles and me standing off to the side making fun of them working until it was our turn). But wouldn't you know it, Riley loves to play the lame game, and was already teaching Cole how to play too. There was one weekend where I attempted to canter on Riley, it was a little successful until I learned that even though on my two feet I have great balance, I don't necessarily have the best balance on a horse.

Which brings me to this weekend.

The Half Ass School is back in session, and with a little help from Horse Nation and One K.

Riley thought he was entitled to wear my new helmet too
since he had to suffer through being painted like the
American Flag.

Yesterday wasn't so much of a lesson day as it was a photo shoot so we could show Horse Nation and One K how much Riles loved our Patriotic Helmet prize. Because of the photo shoot I could actually see how bad my form was while trotting, I my feet were too far forward, my elbows weren't bent enough, and as Maggie would put it, I had "puppy dog hands". Of course when we showed up to the barn, everyone else had the same idea too. Maggie and I started to take the long way up to the arena, but I decided to part ways and take a long hack first. With Riley needing to only work in the arena and multiple people riding, I like to stay out of the way since I still don't ride as well as most, I would just feel like I was constantly in the way and get a little rattled. Riles and I had our nice little hack down by the creek and then worked our way back up to the arena to get a little workout in. Tubby McTubberson still needs to do a little work. It's partially my fault because I always give the boys a little too many treats while I'm around. To think, I'm called the dead beat dad.
Everyone point and laugh at John's horrible form

Riles and I sporting my new America Helmet

 My noble steed looks like he really enjoyed
our photo shoot. Little does he know that
I've made him famous in my comic

Everyone was nice and let me have my own little area, which was nice because I could also work on posting on the right lead too. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I used my new whip that Dawn so generously decorated in glittery glory and Mandy I know how you feel about it, just wait until I get you one for Christmas.

All in all it was a successful learning weekend and very nice to start riding one of the boys again (I still miss you Willard. You made me not have to work hard). Riley doesn't know it, but he has a lot in store for him in the future, we're headed to Rolex! lol, I hope everyone knows I'm full of crap when I say that. So maybe instead we'll strive for the 2016 Olympics.

-John

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Listen to Your Horse

Today's life lesson, brought to you courtesy of Riley, is to listen to your horse when something just isn't right.

For the past few weeks, Riley has been mildly slipping behind. At first, I thought that it was just the grass was so slick, so I rode him in the arena, where he slipped just as often. It was neither predictable nor major, so even though I wasn't terribly worried, I had Dr. Martha perform a physical neurological exam. Riley was slightly positive to some tests, but he'd been off all spring in the hind leg where he showed muscle weakness, and he's never been one to back up, so we weren't all that worried. I had Doug add borium to his shoes later that week with the hopes that the slipping would stop.

Because it didn't stop, last Wednesday Dr. Martha came out to pull blood in order to run a peptide SAG ELISA test. The test is relatively new, but is much more accurate than the old blood test- Dr. Martha rated it at about 80% accuracy. According to the interwebs, the test "looks for the presence of antibodies specific to three surface antigens (SAG-1, 5, and 6) created by the protozoa." The bolo had to be sent down to Florida, so I had a few days of waiting with my fingers crossed (although we were fairly comfortable that he was ok).

During her exam of Riley, she recommended that I have Pam out for his back. Pam came on Friday and was hopeful that some of the adjustments would help with the slipping because of the odd location of some of his fixations in his cervical vertebrae. Since last week, his slipping has been getting worse, so unfortunately it was not as simple as a back adjustment.

The results of the test finally came in last night, and Riley tests abnormal/low positive for SAG-1 and SAG-5. He tests normal for SAG-6. I honestly have to admit that I cried a bit after I listened to Dr. Martha's voicemail. The last thing that Riley deserves is to slowly have his neurologic capacities slip away. But if I want to be frank, the last thing that Will deserved was to die, so the bottom line is that shit happens, even to wonderful, giving animals that don't deserve it. So to be positive, if Riley had to have an EPM diagnosis, there a few good things going for him:
- The peptide SAG ELISA test also indicates which drugs might be most effective. A high SAG-6 is more rare and less treatable, so I'm thankful that his abnormal tests are for the more treatable forms of the protozoa.
- I caught it very early. Right now, Riley maybe tests at a 1 for the physical signs (apparently weight loss is one of the symptoms, and we all know Riley isn't facing that yet!). Dr. Martha said that we have a very good chance of Riley having a full recovery and continuing to event at the BN/N levels.
- The particular drug that we've chosen to treat the EPM with, Oroquin-10, is relatively new, but shows promising rates of efficacy, hopefully without the same rates/risk of relapse associated with Marquis. Plus it's cheaper than Marquis.

Dr. Martha said she would contact Wickliffe today with the hopes of getting Riley's drugs as soon as possible. I am SO happy that I did the right thing and listened closely to my horse. I've had Riley for 6 years, and even though he was gone for 1 1/2 of those years, I know him well enough to know when something isn't right. I'm very hopeful for Riley's prognosis because not only does he have the best support team ever, but because we caught this early.

Oh, and as a heads up, expect some very adorable pictures of Riley and Cole tonight or tomorrow. They're new BFFs in the paddock out front- last night I even caught them sharing grass! And perhaps the blog will even get an update about Cole's grid work tonight! And as a closing note, if you're lucky enough to have a pony, you need to give him/her extra hugs and treats- you never know what life is going to throw in the way, and showing your appreciation makes it a lot easier to face.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Project Willie Muffin

Sorry I haven't written for you guys lately, I got so caught up in my new Horse Pad that I lost complete track of time. I've been playing all these awesome games and checkin out the fillies on Horsebook. I love the My Horse app, I hear mom has one for me. I decided to make, my horse Riley, that way I could make him do all the work for once. I still don't understand why everyone loves this Angry Birds thing, should be more like angry geese, those things were mean whenever I ran into them in the back field.

I would like to officially welcome Cole to team. It's a shame I can't tell him what life will really be like for him, Riley taking all the limelight while he does all the hard work. And hopefully he'll be a little like me and not give into all the peer pressure of over eating. Riley was looking a little chubby in that patriotic picture. Doesn't he know to stay away from horizontal stripes? They aren't slimming. Mom is already worried Riley is going to start teaching Cole all the tricks of the trade, like how to milk injuries and how to play mind games with Maggie and you being lame. She's even threatened to separate them so they can't talk to each other through the stall walls. She knows that it's no use though, they'll probably just tie some twine between two water buckets and use them to talk. Speaking of Riley looking like an American Flag...why the hell couldn't mom win any of this sweet stuff while I was around? A tredstep makeover (she needed some new stuff since she always bought everything for us and nothing for herself) and a new massage pad. I would have loved to you that thing. Sitting in the stall with that and my voodoo hat on would have been like living in a spa. And to top it all off John won that kick-ass helmet. I'm really sad he'll never get to ride me with it, we would have looked soooo cool.

In case everyone hasn't heard yet, I'm working in the Willie Muffin factory now. Yes we produce them up here, with treats that good, they couldn't make them on earth. I was hired on as Head Taste Tester and New Flavor Creator. Cole is so picky right now with what he likes, I've gotta come up with new flavors; I mean what kind of horse doesn't like carrots?! What a weirdo, those are the best treats, not the sugar filled ones or the crappy Tractor Supply cookies. And it's a good thing Riley does work here though, he would probably get fired the first day for sneaking too many treats. I can just see him waiting at the end of the conveyor belt eatin' them before they can fall into the box. I've noticed that Cole has yet to get his peppermint hangin' ball, apparently Riles is keepin his mouth shut so Cole doesn't know whats up. That way he can reap all the benefits and doesn't have to share.

I've been thinking of ways to still mess with Riley. I think I might accidentally drop some peppermints and carrots from the sky over the back field and see how he reacts, hopefully John and Maggie will think he's nuts when he tells them it's raining treats.

Well, I gotta head to work now, I'm working on a new flavor today, maybe some sort of bourbon ball flavored muffin. Its also getting so hot in the summers that I'm trying to get them to look into some sort of ice cream treat. Don't tell Riles though, he'll go on the disabled list just to get more treats.

-Will

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Cole's First Lesson!

It looks like I complained so much yesterday that today was great. I was one of two for sound ponies, which is much better than zero of two. And since Cole was sound, and I'd been meaning to get some help with him, and Julie was around/not busy, we had our first official lesson.

Cole was AMAZING. Both of us have been out of the game for a while, so we both thought the lesson was pretty hard work. But other than that, Cole was a pretty willing guy and was happy to work. There were a few baby bucks, and one or two times that he kicked out, but we all know I secretly love broncos, and I certainly don't remember Riley being this easy when he was green. (Riley has thankfully grown up, and is a pleasure to ride on the flat now- but he did used to be a nightmare!) Cole thought that bending left, and especially cantering and bending left at the same time were very hard, but he still gave it a try if I insisted that he do it. When he did what I asked and I rode correctly, he was a dream to ride (and moves like a big time horse!). Overall, he was a pleasure to ride :).

A very angry Riley.

As for Riley, he got the day off because the vet is coming tomorrow and I didn't want to aggravate anything if his back is bugging him as much as he said it was last night. He did however get dressed back up in his muzzle (which he had tried to ditch in the field last night), plus a halter over top to try and make it a little harder to undress himself. He's still whining miserably about it all, coughing every minute to try and guilt me into taking it off. Little does he know that if he keeps this whining up, it just means he'll be getting a "Easy Breathe Muzzle," and not complete freedom. Welcome to fat camp, Riley. I'm sure John's hiding carrots and peppermints in the hollowed out fence posts, but I'm doing my best since you think that Perkisizing exercising is overrated.

Monday, July 9, 2012

More Ups and Downs

Everyone who's into horses knows that we don't just love them for the joy they give us. We love them just as much for the heartbreak, because it makes the joy that much more uplifting. Like life, owning horses means dealing with the ups just as gracefully as we do the downs.

Lately it feels like I've been on a roller coaster. After such a crummy spring on the horse front, I was really hoping for an amazing summer- buying a new horse, having Riley back home, and who knows what else. If a couple blue ribbons found their way into my lap along the way, I certainly would not be disappointed.

Of course, horses being horses, this is not what's happened. Dealing with Riley is like being on one of those pirate ship rides- initially it looks fun, but after a month and a half of going baaack and fooortth, I think I'm about ready to puke. The little guy (yes, I know he's 16 hands- but shorter than Will and Cole, and with the personality of a little 12 year old boy) keeps playing sound pony, only to decide something else is wrong (because we all know how much fun vacation is). His hot nail healed, so a pulled muscle sounded fun. His pulled muscle was alright, so mysterious ankle seemed intriguing. Mysterious ankle seems to work like healthy ankle again, so now he's trying to scare the poop out of me by slipping all the time. 

Riley thinks dressage is dumb.

But eternally hopeful for one of those ups, I decided that 2-3 weeks of sound Riley merited some jumping. I think if we do any more dressage without a break, we will both die of boredom. So I went about exploring the lesser used parts of my bridle collection. It was with a heavy heart that I assembled his jumping outfit, moving bits and reins around and unearthing the running martingale. Most days I feel ready to move on- I even gave Cole Will's old lead rope and have been contemplating giving Riley Will's gray fly mask since he's slowly destroying his own- but today I wasn't ready for Riley to wear some of the gear that Will was wearing when he died. The reins, my only pair with stops, were done up on his clean bridle, as if waiting for him to come back and wear it, while the martingale had been hidden on the back of the rack to forget. I've been trying to tackle cleaning some of Will's old things, to make the memories a bit more dull, but the martingale has yet escaped. Rational me said it was silly to be upset- the martingale had Riley's name on it after all, and the reins are short and more suited to Riley's tiny neck. In the end, though, emotional me won over rational me, and I was suddenly more bummed about jumping than anyone in their right mind ought to be. 

I tried to cheer myself up and took Riley up to the ring for some jumping. I set a warmup fence with a rail on either side. I can't remember ever doing this exercise with Riley before, but I thought he could benefit. When I raised it to a vertical and rolled the rails to 9', he got extraordinarily upset on landing. Thinking that he could just be angry about the landing rail, I took it out. Still angry. I tried two other small verticals, just to be sure- definitely still angry. 

So now Riley has a slipping issue AND his back is bugging him again. The hollow-and-buck-and-stop-all-at-once screams classic Riley's Back Hurts. 

Meanwhile, my brand new horse is hopefully back in one piece. Cole got his shoe and pad put back on today. I thought about telling him that he's going to wear his Air Jordans, and he damn well better like them, or no more cheap Tractor Supply cookies. But being the softie I am, I just gave him a cookie instead of a lecture. It's not like the horses listen to me anyways. 

So to wrap it all up, and not feel like a total downer (although that's definitely what today feels like), on the bright side:
- Cole is hopefully sound again, and ready to take over as work horse for Team Riley
- Riley is absolutely hilarious in his grazing muzzle, which I broke down and put on him today, because his belly just keeps getting bigger and bigger
- I already have an appointment with Dr. Martha on Wednesday to pull blood for an EPM test, so it won't be difficult to add a back-check to the list
- Riley's back will be very happy to test out the new Equilibrium Massage Therapy Pad that he won because he truly is one of the best horses ever, even if he thinks early retirement sounds fun
- John has a swanky new helmet that Riley helped him win (and Cole is supposedly beginner friendly)
- I'm so, so lucky to have two horses that are as happy as I think mine are, and friends and family that make the downs not seem so bad

Oh, and even if I do have all those things to be optimistic about, I sure think I'm due a little karmic up, like maybe a sound Cole who can make it to a mini-trial at the end of this month. 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Such a Sucker...

So I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows me knows I'm a HUGE sucker when it comes to my horses. Even though it's taken me a long time to figure out just how tightly wrapped around their little hooves I am, Cole didn't take long to catch onto the game. In fact, less than a week after his homecoming, he'd already realized that I'll pretty much do anything for my horses.

On Thursday, I was very excited to have Doug (our farrier) out to put some sweet new kicks on Cole. He got the Air Jordans of the horse world- front shoes with pour-in-pads because he needed a little extra sole on one of his front feet.

New shoes and new bell boots!

Also a new fly mask!

Well, it turns out that Cole doesn't like Air Jordans much. I think he's much more of a basic Converse All Star guy- by Saturday he was pathetically lame, and by Monday we had pulled his left front shoe off. The awkward death-smelling grey goo in his hoof pack today also hints that he might of popped an abcess on top of having a hot nail, but either way, he was pretty upset about his swanky new shoes.

In the time between having the vet out on Saturday and the farrier coming on Monday, I ended up icing his feet both Saturday and Sunday. While it seems normal to me to ice whatever's hot, my dad walked in on Sunday and couldn't get over how silly it was that Cole was getting both his front feet soaked in buckets of ice. (As a side note, and an extra reason why I'm a sucker- my dad was at the barn to help me resurface/redo the mats in Cole's stall.)

I don't see it when I look in the mirror, but the horses sure seem to think I have sucker boldly written across my forehead. And, well, I really can't disagree. On the bright side, Cole seemed much happier and sounder today, and Riley pretended to be a very sound, wonderful dressage pony. Tomorrow we'll have to see if Riley told Cole about the trick where you pretend to be sound one day and lame the next, but hopefully he doesn't like Cole enough yet to share his best secrets.